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museum employee Bill Queen packages a large painting. |
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Traveling
art exhibition
creates lots of work
Like the
adventure that inspired them, more than 60 paintings depicting the
Lewis and Clark expedition traveled into the West. But unlike the
Corps of Discovery, the paintings were carefully prepared by UM’s
Montana Museum of Art and Culture.
Following a successful four-month stint at UM, the “An Artist
With the Corps of Discovery” show was sent to Portland, Ore.,
where it is being shown by the Oregon Historical Society. During the
next two years, the UM exhibit will travel to six more sites across
the United States.
Produced by Billings artist Charles Fritz, the series of paintings
is an attempt to correct a historic blunder — the fact that
Thomas Jefferson decided not to send a professional artist with the
Corps of Discovery. Fritz created his paintings during the past four
years through exhaustive research and visiting actual sites along
the historic trail.
A lot of work goes into getting a traveling art show on the road.
Just ask Bill Queen, the museum employee responsible for painstakingly
fabricating crates for the paintings and packing them for shipment.
“I probably have 128 hours into construction of the crates,”
he said. “We also have 70 to 80 hours into packing the show.”
Queen said the paintings and their crates weigh close to 3,000 pounds.
Using museum specifications, Queen custom-designed 12 crates for the
62 paintings that went to Portland. The paintings were grouped by
size, and the interior of each crate was lined with 1.5 inches of
stiff Styrofoam. The bottom of each crate also was padded with a thick
cushion of compression foam, and individual paintings are divided
by additional carefully fitted Styrofoam spacers.
“It just eats up your time ferociously,” he said. “It’s
all measure, cut and fit; measure, cut and fit. And all the crates
were screwed and glued together. In the 12 crates I used two gallons
and a pint of glue.”
Following standard museum recommendations, all the crates include
detailed instructions on how to properly unpack and pack the valuable
paintings. Queen said the hard work is done at the beginning of a
traveling art show, and — if done right — the show should
almost unpack itself at the various stops.
Queen became so handy while working for the UM Facilities Services
maintenance unit for 25 years. Now he enjoys helping the Montana Museum
of Art and Culture in various capacities.
“I feel that when these crates go out of here, when they are
going down the road, I can sleep well at night knowing that I built
them the best way I know how,” he said. “They were built
good and strong to protect the art.”
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